An appreciation of the Children’s Musical Theaterworks production of ‘SIX’: rewriting history on a small stage

By. Manjot Dhanda

It’s easy to underestimate a black-box theater tucked inside a shopping mall. From the outside, it just looks like a place for small productions, not sweeping musical spectacles.

But on Saturday, Feb. 21, at the 2 p.m. matinee of “SIX: Teen Edition,” that assumption didn’t last long. By the time the first beat dropped, the space had completely transformed. What looked like a small stage suddenly became something much bigger. (The production finished up its two-weekend run on Sunday, Feb. 22.)

Originally a global hit on the West End and Broadway, “SIX” reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII as pop stars reclaiming their own narratives. Children’s Musical Theaterworks’ production brought that same high-energy concept to the Central Valley by placing the story in the hands of young performers whose confidence and presence made the show feel larger than life.

The production featured two casts.

The Mic Drop Cast included Evelyn Buma as Catherine of Aragon, Mia Wu as Anne Boleyn, Megan McGinthy as Jane Seymour, Olivia Molina as Anna of Cleves, Keira Villanueva as Katherine Howard and Nina Munoz as Catherine Parr.

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The Powerhouse Cast featured A’rynn Davis as Catherine of Aragon, Olivia Monson as Anne Boleyn, Em Monson as Jane Seymour, Ariel Campbell as Anna of Cleves, Stella Freeman as Katherine Howard and Matea McIntyre as Catherine Parr.

From the moment the music started, the intimacy of the black-box theater worked in the production’s favor rather than against it. From my seat near the stage, it became clear how effortlessly the performers claimed the room. Their voices, energy and emotion stretched the small space into something much larger. The choreography was sharp, the humor landed well and the audience responded like they were at a full concert, not a youth production in a mall theater. Bright jewel-toned costumes, glittering fabrics and concert-style lighting in deep purples and golds helped transform the small stage into something that felt far bigger than its walls.

For Keira Villanueva, a 19-year-old Fresno City College music major involved in the production who portrayed Katherine Howard, King Henry VIII’s fifth wife, theater has always been more than performance. It’s a form of expression and survival.

In “SIX,” Howard’s story traces a shift from playful confidence to a more complicated reflection on power, agency and how young women’s voices are often dismissed, making her arc one of the show’s most emotionally layered moments.

“I first started theater because I needed an outlet and I also loved singing,” Villanueva said. “I was awful at it. But I decided that I really wanted to pursue it professionally.”

While training, vocal coaching and experience helped shape her skills, she said the true power of theater came from what it allowed her to say and reveal.

“It was an outlet. I think that, especially as a teenager, we go through a lot of dark things,” she said. “In the show, we talk about the things that women go through, and they’re so normalized now and it’s awful. But having that escape, and being able to share your story through other characters, lets you perform and show who you really are through other people.”

That connection between performer and history is vital to “SIX,” which reframes the queens not as historical footnotes, but as real women whose experiences still resonate today.

Villanueva explained that before each performance, the cast took time to ground themselves in that responsibility.

“Before the show, we take about 10 or 15 minutes and we just talk about the story and how we want to express these characters’ stories because they’re real people,” she said in an interview after the matinee performance. “They went through these real things and they don’t always get to have their story shared. But now I get to help other women who don’t feel empowered share the story. We rewrite history.”

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Director Randy Kohlruss said the production shaped his own approach to directing young performers.

“What was really special about directing this show was that it changed the way I approach directing female and non-binary actors,” Kohlruss said. “I found it was better to let them find their own path rather than dictate where I thought it should go. Mostly I got to sit back and let them make their own choices, which was very empowering to them and really effective for the show.”

That sense of ownership was visible from the audience. What stood out most was not just the vocal strength or stage presence but the way the performers seemed fully in control of their characters and the space.

Watching a globally famous musical unfold in such an intimate venue highlighted something unique about youth theater in the central San Joaquin Valley. The production didn’t feel like a scaled-down version of Broadway. Instead, it felt like something else entirely: a reminder that storytelling power doesn’t depend on the size of the stage but on the voices telling it.

By the final number, the theater no longer felt like a temporary space inside a mall. It felt like a stage capable of holding centuries of history, heartbreak, humor and defiance.

What stayed with me in this Children’s Musical Theaterworks production wasn’t just the strength of the vocals or the energy of the choreography. It was the realization that history, when handed to the right voices, doesn’t stay in the past. On that small stage in Clovis, it didn’t just feel alive. It felt like it was still being written.